David Davies, 1st Baron Davies
Encyclopedia
David Davies, 1st Baron Davies (11 May 1880 – 16 June 1944), was a politician and public benefactor, the grandson of the famous industrialist, David Davies "Llandinam"
David Davies (industrialist)
David Davies was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1874 and 1886. Davies was often known as David Davies Llandinam , in order to differentiate him from others of the same name.Davies was the son of David Davies and his wife Elizabeth...

.

Davies was born and died at Llandinam
Llandinam
Llandinam is village in Powys, central Wales, between Newtown and Llanidloes, located on the A470.Llandinam was the family home of David Davies who was responsible for much of the development of the South Wales Valleys and the export of coal in the 19th century...

, Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire, also known as Maldwyn is one of thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. Montgomeryshire is still used as a vice-county for wildlife recording...

. His father, Edward Davies, was Llandinam's only son. His two sisters, Gwen
Gwendoline Davies
Gwendoline Elizabeth Davies, CH , was a granddaughter of the philanthropist David Davies Llandinam. Together with her sister Margaret, she is remembered as a patron of the arts in Wales and important collector of Impressionist and 20th-century art...

 and Margaret
Margaret Davies
Margaret Sidney Davies , was a Welsh art collector and patron of the arts. With her sister Gwendoline, she bequeathed a total of 260 works, particularly strong in Impressionist and 20th-century art, which formed the basis of the present-day National Museum Wales' international collection...

, became known as patrons of the arts. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School
Merchiston Castle School
Merchiston Castle School is an independent school for boys in the village of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has about 480 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 8 and 18 as either boarders or day pupils; day pupils make up 35% of the school....

 and King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

, graduating in 1903.

Politically and personally, David now followed the lead set by his grandfather. From 1906 to 1929, he was the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for the Montgomeryshire constituency
Montgomeryshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Montgomeryshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in 1542, it elects one Member of Parliament , traditionally known as the knight of the shire, by the first-past-the-post system of election.The Montgomeryshire Welsh Assembly...

, and an active supporter of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

. In 1932 he established the New Commonwealth Society for ‘the promotion of international law and order’, writing several books on the right use of force, notably The Problem of the Twentieth Century (1930), which was translated into German and other languages. His ideas had an impact on the writing of the UN Charter, especially with regards to sanctions and the transition of national armies to an international police.

The barony
Baron Davies
Baron Davies, of Llandinam in the County of Montgomery, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1932 for the Welsh businessman, Liberal Member of Parliament and philanthropist, David Davies. He was the grandson and namesake of the prominent industrialist David Davies...

 was created for him in 1932.

He endowed the Chair in International Politics established at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...

, which also hosts the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies.

A statue was commissioned in his honour and stands in Llandinam in Powys on the A470. The Llandinam Building at Aberystwyth University was named in his honour.

Further reading

  • Biography of Davies by K. O. Morgan, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004

External links

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